penny



3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

{No Model.)

. W. H. PENNY.

TRACK SWEEPING ATTACHMENT I'OR STREET CARS; No. 542,977.

Patented July 16, 1895..

"(No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 2. W. H. PENNY.

TRACK $WEEPING ATTACHMENT FOR STREET CARS. No. 542,977. Patented July16', 1895.

WITNESSES v ek. 7M.f 437 LM,

(No- Model.) a Sheets-Sheet s.

W. H. PENNY. I

TRACK SWEEPING ATTAGHMENT FOR STREET CARS. N0.;5'4 2,977. v PatentedJuly 16, 1 895.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR ATTORNEY NITE STATES ATENT FFICEQ ASSIGNOR OFONE-HALF PLACE.

TRACK-SWEEPING ATTACHMENT FOR STREET-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 542,977, dated July 16,1895. Application filed September 21, 1894. Serial No. 523,735. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. PENNY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Danbury, in the county of Fairfield and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inTrack-Sweeping Attachments for Street-Cars; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements intrack-sweeping attachments to street-cars, and has for itsobparticularly pointed ject to provide a simple and economical device ofthis description which shall be under the control of the car-driver;and, with these ends in view,-my invention consists in the details ofconstruction and combination of parts, as will be hereinafter fullyexplained, and

out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a bottom View, partly brokenaway, of a street car equipped with my improvement; Fig. 2, a sideelevation; Fig. 3, a section at the line a: a: of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, adetail perspective of one of the brush-hangers; Fig. 5, a section at theline yy of Fig. 4; and Fig. 6, a detail perspective of one of thejournal-boxes, to be more particularly hereinafter described.

My improvement is applied at each end of the car so as to sweep thetracks 'in front of either set of wheels; but in order to avoid mereduplication I have shown only one end of a car equipped with myimprovement.

Similar numbers of reference denote like parts in the several figures ofthe drawings.

1 is the floor of the car; 2, the axle; 3, the wheels, and 4 theplatform.

At the forward end of the platform are hangers 5, within which isjournaled a short counter-shaft 6.

Located between the hangers 5 at the end of the platform and the axle 2are hangers 7, within which is journaled a short shaft 8.

9 10 are sprocket-wheels which are secured respectively on the shafts 68, and 11 is a sprocket-chain which gears said wheels together.

12 are inclined shafts, the inner ends of which are connected to theends of the shaft 8 by gimbal-joints 13. The outer ends of these shafts12 pass freely through journalboxes let within the hangers 15. 16 arethe brushes which are secured on the outer ends of the shafts 12.

17 is a large sprocket-wheel fast on the axle 2, and 18 is asprocket-wl1eel of smaller diameter mounted loosely on the counter-shaft6.

19 is a twisted sprocket-chain which gears the sprocket-wheels l7 and 18together, whereby motion is imparted to said sprocket-wheel 18 in adirection opposite to that in which the axle 2 is rotated. 20 is aclutch-hub formed integral with the sprocket-wheel 18, and 21 is anordinary clutch splined on the countershaft 6. 22 is an operating-leverpivoted at 23 to the platform of the car, (see Fig. 3,) by means ofwhich the clutch 21 may be operated to engage or disengage the teeth ofthe hub 20.

The brushes 16 are capable of a free vertical movement, so that whenobstructions or uneven surfaces are encountered said brushes may rideover the same without danger of becoming broken, and said raised up offthe track when not in use.

The hangers 15, within which the shafts 12 are journaled, are of specialconstruction; but since both these hangers are exactly alike adescription of one of said hangers is deemed sufficient.

24 is a long gate within the hanger 15, (see Figs. 4, 5, and 6,) and 25are grooves within said hanger on opposite sides of the gate. Thejournal-box 14, through which the shaft 12 passes, has pins 26 onopposite sides which fit within the grooves 25, so that it will bereadily understood that when the shaft 12 and brush attached thereto aremoved in a vertical plane the j ournal-box, by the manner of itsarrangement within the hanger, will readily accommodate itself to thismovement. The means employed for elevating the brushes from the tracksare of course exactly alike for each brush, and I shall refer only toone of these mechanisms.

26 is a rock-shaft journaled in bearings 27.

brushes may be 28 is a crank formed on one end of this rockshaft andprovided with an elongated slot 29 through which the shaft 12 is passed.30 is a hand-lever secured to the outer end of the rock-shaft. It willbe'clearly understood that rocking this shaft 26 in one direction oranother by means of the hand-lever 30 will operate to depress or elevatethe brushes 16.

In the operation of my improvement the power is transmitted to thedevice from the car-axle by means of the twisted sprocketchain 19, whichcauses the brushes to rotate in a direction opposite to that in whichthe car-axle is rotated, the effect of which is to throw the dirt, snow,860., out and away from the wheels of the car.

The brushes 16 are conical in shape, being smallest at the outer ends,the object of which construction is to enable the outer ends of all thebristles of the brush to evenly sweep the ground and rails when thebrushes are in operative position.

It will be observed that the shafts 12 are inclined downwardly andrearwardly, the object of the downward incline being to enable thedriving parts to be arranged close to the bottom of the car-body and asfar away from the roadbed as possible, so that obstructions, such asdirt or snow, will not parts or impede the progress of the car. Theobject of the rearward incline of the shafts 12 is to enable the brushesin their rotary movements to sweep outwardly at an angle across thecar-tracks, it being obvious that if these brushes extend outwardly atright angles to the sides of the car they would simply sweep dirt orother obstructions in an accumulated mass directly in front of thebrushes and upon the rails. The conical brush compensates in a measurefor the downward inclination of the shaft.

The arrangement of shafts inclined to the clog up such rear and havingcylindrical brushes thereon is shown in patent to Seror, No. 444,675,dated January 13, 1891. I do not claim such construction.

It will also be observed that by providing separate and independentlevers 30 for elevating and lowering the brushes the latter may beoperated independent of each other, and this is a feature ofconsiderable advanrage in some instances.

The tilting and sliding boxes 14: through which the shafts 12 freelypass not only serve to guide and properly sustain the shafts, but alsoautomatically adapt themselves to the movements of the latter, so thatthere can be no cramping or binding which might retard the movements ofthe shafts or produce undue friction.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is--.

In a streetcar track sweeping machine, the transverse driving shaft, theinclined shafts connected by universal joints at the outer ends thereofand supported in vertically movable bearings and carrying brushes, andsepa rate rock shafts having slotted crank arms through the slots ofwhich the brush shafts pass, and means for rotating said rock shafts andthereby raising or lowering the brushes, all combined substantially asdescribed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WVILLIAM II. PENNY.

Witnesses:

F. W. SMITH, Jr., M. T. LONGDEN.

